After the Central Police Canteens that cater to the Central paramilitary forces withdrew 1,000 foreign items from their stores, Welfare and Rehabilitation Board (WARB) Chairman and CRPF DG AP Maheshwari on Monday said the items were erroneously delisted and action is being taken against errant officials.
The move by the WARB follows instructions from the Home Ministry to rescind the order for removal of “imported” products sold at canteens. On May 29, an order delisting the “imported” products was issued. However, a number of products manufactured by Indian companies also figured on the list. Now a new reworked list will be brought out, officials said.
Maheshwari said, “This is clarified that the list issued by Kendriya Police Kalyan Bhandar (KPKB) on 29th May 2020 regarding delisting of certain products has been erroneously issued at the level of CEO. The list has been withdrawn and action is being initiated for the lapse.”
DIG-rank officer RM Meena is the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) KPKB that runs paramilitary canteens across India.
The KPKB had formulated three categories of products to discriminate between locally manufactured and imported. . In the first category, products made in India from scratch were included.
The second category included products manufactured or assembled in India but the raw material was imported. Likewise, the third category referred to 'Purely Imported Products', officials said.
Each and every product sold by the paramilitary canteens was put under one of these three categories.
In the category 3, the KPKB listed 1,026 products that included an Italian chocolate brand and a South Korean manufacturer of air conditioners and televisions.
Seven companies engaged in importing finished products and selling them here included brands like American shoemaker Skechers, Italian proprietary food products manufacturer Ferraro India and energy drink maker Redbull India.
The delisted products list also included brands like Dabur fruit juice and VIP suitcases among others.
The KPKB order had anticipated the possibility of disputes over the move and underscored that it had categorised the products "on the sole information provided by the firms only".
"In case of any litigation, the information provided by the firm will be used as evidence and the onus to prove the information is correct will be on the respective firm," according to the order.
The push by the canteens for selling only local products follows Prime Minister Narendra Modi's stress on "vocal for local" and subsequent directive by Home Minister Amit Shah that the canteens will only sell "Made in India" products.